Good Gravy--What's With the Garlic?!

A friend recently reminded me of some silliness from my early days of cooking, twenty-something years ago. I had completely forgotten about this blunder of ridiculous proportions until she emailed me the other day. You see, we have just reconnected on Facebook after having lost touch for a while. The old stories are starting to bubble up...she knew me way back when!

OK. So, I am going to get out ahead of this one. I'll confess naivete. I mean, at the time of this seemingly innocent flub, I was new to the kitchen and just a mere 26 or so years old. That said, be kind with your judgement.

After I left college, I took a detour while on my journey to be the next Deborah Norville. (If you don't remember Deborah Norville, it's probably because of Katie Couric who swooped into morning TV while Deb stepped out to have a baby. Move your feet...lose your...well, you get the pic.)  I veered off into the restaurant business. The owner was Italian, though the restaurant was not; more of an eclectic, rather aimless menu. Like a good Italian boy, he was looking for a really, really good tomato sauce. Not sure why his family didn't have one...don't they pass those kinds of things down? Anyhoo...I turned to the mother of all cooks... mine!

My mother had given me an interesting recipe for sauce that she had picked up through a cooking class. This attempt at making something from scratch was the first since the bagel fiasco with my college roommates (think skinny worms in boiling water!). I was a nutriment newbie, a mere calorie consumer at this point. But I wanted to impress my boss.

The recipe called for chopped fresh herbs, onion, canned tomatoes, garlic--all of the usual suspects. So, I searched for the fresh herbs--this was back in the dark ages when fresh herbs were an unconventional supermarket item. Nevertheless, I managed to procure all that was needed  for the recipe and went to work in my tiny apartment kitchen.

The recipe called for six whole cloves of garlic. I had never worked with garlic before--I know, I know, what rock had I crawled out from under?! But this was a really long time ago--typewriters, phones attached to walls, Sony Walkmans, real customer service and encyclopedia book sets. I don't think the mainstream folk were infatuated with garlic yet. I surely wasn't!

So, I followed what Mom said were simple, straightforward directions. I peeled and cooked the onion whole in the olive oil, let it slowly caramelize a bit and turn it round and round for 10 to 12 minutes in the saute pan. Then I added the fresh herbs and sauteed until they were fragrant. Time for the garlic; I took the six cloves out of the bag, plopped them into the pan and rolled 'em round with the rest of the fixings, then dumped in the tomatoes and the additional elements, brought it to a boil and simmered away.

Well, feeling proud, I called Mom. The conversation went something like this:

"I did it, I made that tomato sauce, Mom. It's simmering on the stove."
"Good job, Kathy." (To this day, she refuses to recognize my cool-TV-news-name-spelling-change. "Kathie" is so much more interesting, don't you think.) "Did you have any trouble finding the ingredients?"
"Not really, Mom. But I do think the garlic is a bit much."
"What do you mean." In that puzzled tone every mom owns.
"Well," I say, "I couldn't cut that thick core out all the way. Also, I tried to remove as much of the papery skin as I could, but it's all gnarled together, impossible! PLUS, Mom, it just seems like too much garlic. Do I remove these gigantic things before I serve the sauce?"
"Oh my gosh, Kathy! Did you put in six cloves of garlic or six heads of garlic?!"
"Well, what do you mean...what's the difference?" Ah, there it was.

My old friend says that, to this day, whenever she makes and/or eats red sauce, she thinks of this story. I suppose I will, too, from now on! I have worked really hard on this sauce over the years, finally understanding the various ingredients. What follows is a sweetly delicious sauce for use as a base in many Italian favorites. Just remember to use six CLOVES of garlic.

Sweet Basil Tomato Sauce

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
6 whole garlic cloves; peeled, ends trimmed
1 medium onion, whole, peeled, ends trimmed
1/4 cup freshly chopped basil
4 tbsp. minced Italian herbs
(With the fresh herbs, you can adjust to your taste)
1 28oz. can Whole tomatoes
2 14 ½ oz. cans diced tomatoes
1 6 oz. can tomato paste
1 14 ½ oz. can tomato sauce
1 tbsp. kosher salt
1 tsp. freshly ground pepper
3 tablespoons sugar

Place all canned tomato products in a large stock pot or crock pot and set the heat to low. Sauté whole onion in olive oil over medium heat until it starts to become translucent and a bit caramelized on the outside (about 10 min.); add whole garlic cloves and sauté another two or three minutes. (Turn the heat down if necessary to avoid charring the vegetables.) Using tongs, transfer onion and garlic to the pot with the tomatoes. Add herbs to the sauté pan and cook until fragrant—about 2-4 minutes. Remove from heat and transfer herbs and oil to tomato mix. Add salt, pepper and stir in sugar. Cook on low for up to 6 hours, stirring frequently and breaking up the tomatoes. You can easily smooth out the sauce using an immersion blender about halfway through the cooking time, if desired.

I keep a fresh loaf of good Italian bread near the pot for the occasional dip and taste! My kids love this.